1918 Luger #5974
 

I have recently inherited a Luger and am in the process of writing up the guns' history as told to me by my father, as told to him by his uncle after WWII. The gun has a rectangle cut out area on the handle where it is reported that there was an engraving/picture/image of the officer's wife and child. Customs made my great uncle rip out the image and throw if overboard upon his return to the US, along with the magazine and ammo.

I have not seen this in any other images of Lugers on the web, can anyone tell me more about this, is it common, are there examples of what it might look like intact? Does anyone else have a gun like this
Thank you!
~M. Gipson

Welcome to the forum. This is possible, but not likely for a gun used in WW2; perhaps a WW1 gun that was turned in after the war?

A german officer or NCO would not have had a luger with an inlet, it is just not found.

Now, I have seen many US GI's that had plexiglass grips with the GI's girlfriend, loved ones under the grip, and I bet you a doughnut that if it was "ripped" out, it showed a picture that was more than risque and that is why it is gone.

I do not beleive that they had "customs" like we do now, if anything, it would have been military checkpoint, rather than "customs".


Ed

Just a guess here, nothing more. Is it possible that whoever took the Luger had to kill a German soldier to get it and didn't want to have to look at the widow's and orphan's faces ?? Please, I mean no disrespect. In war it's him or me. I mention the possibility only because my father told me that he once killed a German soldier and found on his body a picture of what appeared to be his wife and child. He said he felt terrible then and let me tell you, 20 to 30 years later, he still felt terrible.

I haven't a clue as to the magazine / ammo.